Rutland has recorded a further fall in its 7-day case rate, dropping a fifth over a week, in contrast to the national situation.

England's smallest county recorded 20 cases today, compared with 21 cases yesterday, 7 last Friday and 16 the Friday before.

Once again, no deaths were recorded.

The 7-day rate has been declining recently, and currently stands at 167.8 cases per 100,000, compared with 182.8 on Wednesday and 190.3 on Tuesday.

Last Friday, it was at 207.9, and it was at 130.2 cases per 100,000 of population on the Friday before that.

Whilst the Rutland figure has fluctuated a little, the England average has steadily risen in recent weeks and stands much higher at 360.4 cases per 100,000. A week ago it was at 275.6 cases per 100,000.

However, there has been a large increase in testing recently, with 1.2 million tests on Wednesday and more than 7.2 million over the past week.

Rutland has now recorded 1984 cases recorded since the start of the pandemic- about one case for every 20 residents. This compares with the England average of about one-in-12.

The number of deaths remains at 65, the same as yesterday- about one for every 600 residents, which compares with the national average of one-in-500 residents.

Meanwhile in Lincolnshire, South Kesteven recorded more than a 100 cases today but still the district has now gone more than ten weeks without a death.

The deaths tally remains at 270, with the last fatality related to the virus in the district being on Wednesday May 5.

The last fatality priority to that was Tuesday March 25, showing South Kesteven has experienced just two deaths with Covid-19 in more than 15 weeks.

The district recorded 109 people testing positive today, compared with 61 on Thursday and 42 on Wednesday.

Today's 109 compares with 56 last Friday and 22 the Friday before.

Overall, there have been 8568 recorded cases in South Kesteven since the start of the pandemic- equivalent to about one for about 16 residents in the district.

However, due to how it is calculated, the 7-day rate is now 201.5 cases per 100,000- meaning one-in-500 will have tested positive with the virus over the past week- compared with 201.5 yesterday, 131.3 last Friday and 56.2 the Friday before.

However, despite the rate almost doubling over the past week, and almost quadrupling in a fortnight, it remains almost half the England average of 360.4 cases per 100,000.

Overall, there have been 3,351 new cases of coronavirus in Greater Lincolnshire so far this week, as hospitals in the county have seen their first COVD-19 death after more than a month without.

The government's COVID-19 dashboard on Friday reported 461 new cases in Lincolnshire, 275 in North East Lincolnshire and 118 in North Lincolnshire.

The figure is 32% higher than last Friday's 647 cases – and 43% up on the 2,337 cases by this time last week.

There were no deaths reported in NHS figures today, however, there have been three so far this week in the region's hospitals, while government data has recorded the death of four residents. These were the first deaths in over a month to be recorded.

Nationally, cases increased by 50,870 on Friday – the highest since mid-January – to 5,332,371 while deaths rose by 49 to 128,642.

Nationally, the country looks forward to the lifting of restrictions on Monday, which will include the removal of limits on gatherings, making face coverings no longer required by law and letting nightclubs open.

The coronavirus reproduction number in England has remained basically unchanged, going from between 1.2 and 1.5 to 1.2 and 1.4 this week.

Figures from the office for National Statistics show the infection rate in England at 1 in 95 in the last week – up from 1 in 160.

In positive news, nationally a further 61,681 people have had their first coronavirus vaccine and 201,893 have had their second dose.

It means that 87.6% of adults in the UK have now had their initial shot, while 67.5% have had two.